Similarities Between 'Barn Burning And A Worn Path'

1) Throughout our course, there have been some incredible and powerful women characters and writers. From Granny in “Jilting of Granny Weatherall” to Delia in “Sweat”, all of their stories had powerful connotations and influences in the readers. First of there was Phoenix from “A Worn Path,” she is the protagonist of this tale and is described in a lively way by the way she moves. Welty said, “Under the red rag her hair came down on her neck in the frailest of ringlets, still black, and with odor like copper.” The rag in her hair, her skin, and even the wrinkles on her face are deeply expanded upon in the story and accentuate her character. She is a resilient woman and perseveres through all that comes to her. Even her name is a symbol; the

The two main characters of each story live completely different lives, but they both try to resolve their issues in similar ways. They try to solve their problems using their defense mechanisms and then lose connation to society, social structure, and their inherent values. The interesting thing is that both Snopes and Emily live in isolation from their respective communities and live in limbo because of their connections to the past. They both make the past the present as Faulkner said, “Alive Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a card” essentially saying how they lived as if the past were today. Since both lived in a different setting mentally then their communities they followed their own values free from their society’s thus both are symbolic to the changes in the South during the transition from pre-old money to post-civil war industrial era. In both of the short stories, Faulkner shows then rejecting the societal changes in their own way. They reactions to the past and present clashing has to be different because of Emily came from the wealthy end and Snopes from migrants essentially. Their characters are essentially Faulkner telling us that the past is still present today in their attitudes and actions, but both

In “Hills like White Elephants” there is the American Man, a character vilified as an uncaring man who is insensitive towards Jig’s feelings and only cares about himself in regards to her getting an abortion. In the story, we get the sense that he is aggressive and minimizes everything Jig says. Then there is the older waiter from “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” who acts as a stable center of the entire story. The younger waiter seems full of energy while the old man is stagnant, the older waiter is somewhere in the middle of these two. We can see parts of him in the other characters and shows the reader the stages of life and how everyone will go through them. Not only is he the center point of the entire story he is also the one to show us the ideal behind the story itself. He knows the inevitable will happen, thus he finds a well-lit place to pass the time, while mocking many aspects of life people hold onto so tightly like religion. Finally, there is The Stranger from “The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburgh,” he is a traveler saying he is from a foreign country. The stranger at first seems like a parasite who is trying to destroy a town, however we go on to realize that he is the most admirable character in the entire